| Since the field of "cyberlaw," or laws applied to the Internet, is an emergent field, the time is ripe for scholars, attorneys, and legal critics to consider ways in which this new path of the law ought to be paved. The approach offered in this work stems from a serious concern about the ways many Americans perceive the First Amendment---not only its application to the Internet, but to forms of expressive activity in more traditional fora with which many Americans are uncomfortable. This dissertation's overall goal is to outline one potential way that an intersection between the law and technology, coupled with ideas borrowed from advertising, can address these issues. While the genesis of this work rises from a bona fide concern about the First Amendment's public image and the public's perception of the rights it guarantees, the actual approach itself is intended to be an innovative way of looking at the way in which technology can affirmatively improve the law, adapting ideas offered by legal and media scholars. To this end, three distinct but related areas are examined: libel, pornography and hate speech. This work first examines the cyberlaw field as it stands in these three areas, attempting not only to trace the relatively recent case law and legislation, but also to provide an overview of current legal thinking via review of published work. Second, and most important, this work suggests that a framework that combines social marketing with legal theory might be a fruitful way to resolve some of these legal questions. This author takes the practical perspective that eventually legislatures could bow to public opinion and pass laws that are harmful to the freedoms the First Amendment protects. This approach is aimed primarily at protecting the freedoms we thus far enjoy in the setting of the real world. As legal researchers, we need to acknowledge that public opinion matters, and legal decisions cannot be made in a vacuum. Legal scholarship should not be immune from public opinion and the rise and fall of the public emotional tide, then, either. |
